Re: In Praise of Lyme Activists

a_weisman_at_yahoo.com
Date: 12/29/04 

Date: 29 Dec 2004 15:05:40 -0800

zipzip wrote:
> a_weisman@yahoo.com wrote:
>
> > Funny thing in all the time since WNV hit the scene and got so much
> > attention, publicity and funding for research, I can't find one
> single
> > WNV support group or disease advocacy organization. Not one.
> >
>
> was just talking about that with my ENT (who is ambigous on Lyme
> because of all the uncertainty surrounding it btw)

At least SOME of the hype about WNV has cooled off. AND about SARS.

> > What bothers me and destroys our credibility is the LymeNUT sort of
> > mentality which takes the position that EVERYTHING is Lyme,
>
>
> not true... sometimes it's not lyme but unsubstantiated candida
(which
> can be horrible if you ACTULLY have it) or the ubiquitous mercury
> toxicity.

LOL Fair enough. Of course, please note that EVERYONE has mercury and
other heavy metal toxicity which cannot possibly be measured on
standard testing for heavy metals.

Oh yeah, you forgot the "thick blood" problem requiring heparin
"therapy" (completely unmonitored), the ubiquitous and aptly named
"stealth virus" issues too.

Etcetera.

>that everyone with Lyme requires endless treatment w antibiotics,
that
> LLMDs
> > can do no wrong and that mainstream doctors are uniformly "ducks"
and
> > can do no right!
>
> it's a farfetched hypocripsy. has nothing to due with being a "duck"
> or LLMD but a smart doctor who takes his hippocratic oath to heart
and
> keeps up on medical research. i mean really how many general doctors
> read what is printed in journals? i'm sure a low percentage.

I think that many actually read but don't read more than abstracts and
more importantly do NOT read critically. SO they NEVER parse the study
or the conclusions, they try to absorb the information. Part of this is
a mindset created in the awful system of medical "education" where the
emphasis is one people who can absorb and repeat NOT those who think
creatively or critically.

Doctors are trained not to be particularly intellectually curious.

And they tend to be overwhelmed and tired and this inculcates a certain
intellectual laziness. Add to it that there is no real reward for the
creative thinker problem solver, and there may be punishment. The
emphasis is to conform to a standard NOT argue with one or create a new
one.

And the process of innovation is discouraged in the clinical trenches
(even punished), there is an emphasis on top down innovation, "wisdom"
in medicine is handed down from on high, from the vaunted ivory towers
to the down and dirty guys and gals in the trenches.

Of course this is the opposite of what proves to be valuable in terms
of innovation in every other field, where top down management styles
tend to be stifling of innovation; the modern view is to encourage
innovation from those who are working hands on with an assembly line or
making a product or providing customer service etc.

So this style is a failure in the real world but persists in medince.

> it's academia for the most part. and with medical science (as it
> becomes less medicine in the traditional sense and more science)
> changing so rapidly it is all the more imperative.

Yes very good point!

> > What is amazingly amusing is when they post things wondering how
many
> > doctors read that cybernuthouse called the FLASH board, always
> certain
> > that "the enemy ducks" are surveilling them and wanting to know the
> > names of LLMDs and wanting to know their scary secret plans so they
> can
> > plot to defeat them. One time I saw them wonder how many people
from
> > Harvard were reading the site? LOL
> >
>
> very scary, and hush hush secret. don't tell oxford insurance!

I'll resist the temptation to pick up the red phone hotline and rat
everyone out! Just cause I'm in the holiday spirit though! LOL

By the way most things in Lymeland are hush hush big secrets. There's
no reason for it other than it seems to make the ninnies feel
important.

> > The place is an intellectual trailer park; their leader is an
> anonymous
> > nutcase, they are a bunch of ill informed extremists and quack
remedy
> > advocates, and their huggy huggy nonsense is a thin veneer over
their
> > truly hostile insular extremist moronic mentality.
>
>
> 97.5% true, it is not a gathering of intellectualism, but a
promotion,
> in the 80th percentile, of sterotypical DSM group-think, but the same
> could be said for the majority of modern america, if not humans in
> general.

I'm not sure what the DSM disorder is, but if it doesn't fit an
existing one they oughta study it and add one.

> but for all their ill-informed notions most intentions are good
(huggy
> huggy nonsense).

Sure until you cross them (as you know). Then they can be VICIOUS. But
most bible thumping goody goody huggy huggy red state thinking folks
are complete hypocrites and LymeNUT is a red state kind of place (sorry
der drittemann, I know you don't like the red state blue state
dichotomous thinking and I will admit it is not a healing mode of
analysis and it is a bit glib in that it glosses over the more purple
kind of truth).

> it is an interesting sociological dynamic to say the
> least. the main problem is the spread of misinformation, mostly
based
> on bad sources and unwarranted personal opinoin.

Well yes and the cliqueishness, sing from the same page or else,
tolerate no dissent, true believerism that goes on there.

> as for being a "veneer over their truly hostile insular extremist
> moronic mentality" (excellent articulation btw) it is indicative of
any
> "cult" like behavior. like w. bush said "either your one of us, or
> your one of them"

Yes it is very cult like. And very bush like. I bet most of em voted
for him.